I love listening to Chris Brogan and others talking about how their “sudden” rise to fame is perceived to be “good luck” when it was really the result of a decade or more of really hard work and paying their dues. People have to hit “the tipping point” [Malcolm Gladwell wrote a great book by that title] before their names are recognized. Once their name becomes recognized, progress towards fame moves quickly and, to an outsider, magically, without effort.
That same process is required for any small business owner to be successful. Until you hit that tipping point – the point where enough people know, like, trust, and refer you, to keep you growing – you will struggle.
It is undoubtedly more difficult today to hit that tipping point than ever before. In the past, all you had to do was take out an ad on the radio, or in the local newspaper, and your phone would start ringing.
Today everyone is so bombarded with advertising messages that everything is automatically tuned out. Your advertisement does your competition just as much good as it does you. If you’re a tire store running an ad, you probably reminded the listener or viewer that they needed tires but chances are they won’t remember anything about you, or the ad. If they come to your tire store, it’s more likely the result of their best friend’s mother posting on Facebook that she was eating warm chocolate chip cookies while she waited for you to finish with her car.
It’s most assuredly not an instant process. You have to consistently serve great quality warm chocolate chip cookies for quite some time before the “a” tells “b” tells “c” process causes you to hit the tipping point. It generally requires several “fail fast” events, a brilliant idea or two, and a whole lot of hard work. Please check our next newsletter for information on a better process for coming up with those brilliant ideas.
